Patience is a virtue

We have been waiting for a long time now for a cheaper field to come up close to home. Although Kestal has excellent facilities and everyone there is great, as soon as Jane asked if we wanted to swap places with her we jumped at the chance. As long as Tess; her daughter, likes Kestal we should be moving Nell, Rocky and Tralee down to Gears Lane. Its a 5 minute walk to get there and it should save us around £100 a month or more. We will have 2 large fields that we are fencing into 5 for grazing and a small one that will be used for schooling and jumping, or as a spill over field when the grass gets too long in there. Hopefully Tralee will accept Nell in with him and Rocky, but if not we will just fence off a piece for her. There is no hot water or electrical outlet but you can't have everything and still pay so little.

There are a few things that need to be done though:

• Tralee and Nell's stables need a door put on. They only have a chain across currently to stop them getting into the tie-up area which Tralee and Nell would both figure out how to get through/under etc.
• We might get a small solar powered generator/battery to power a kettle, lighting or other small electric items.
• Electic fencing temporarily around one of the sides of the schooling field due to barb wire. Eventually would like to replace the wire with a proper fence when we have enough money.
• Someone wrote their horses names in pen all over the wood doors. That needs to be scrubbed or sanded off so that we can put some real name plates up.
• Move everything. Our boxes, tack, rugs, fence posts, tape, trolley, feed bins and of course the horses all need to be moved down there in october.

In other news, Nell seems to be looking well again although her fitness has taken quite a knock. She was very lazy today on the ride so will consider adding oats to her feed this winter. She was happy enough to trot all the way up to her field and across it with me bareback today and ran over to the gate to flirt with Justin. She seems to be back to her usual self but has definitely lost stamina since being rested.

Rocky has developed a swelling above his pastern. The girls rekon it is probably just a windgall that won't go away with exercise as he isn't lame with it. Emma and I changed his bit last week to a straight bar half-twist snaffle. It adds a bit more pressure for when he decides to tank off but is milder for him - no more nutcracker action! He is much happier in it - mouthing less, lowering his neck and head and not hollowing out when the reins are pulled - all signs that a bit change was just what he needs to start building a better outline.

Tralee is, as usual, grumpy. He was fairly mellow today though and is happy to be on longer grass. Moving will be more traumatic for him than the other two though. Nell will settle as long as there are horses she knows, food and her humans. Rocky is so chilled anyway he won't be worried at all. He might become a bit withdrawn for a few days until he settles down but he'll be fine with the other two and as long as we give him plenty of cuddles. Tralee is a worry though as he was in the same home for 14 years then for the past 2 has never lived anywhere else but Kestal. We hope that he should be ok with Nell, Rocky and us there but there is always a chance he will try and go back to Kestal.

Fingers crossed Tess likes Kestal and we do get the field. If we do, hopefully moving will go as smooth as possible.

Money don't grow on trees

...Which is quite unfortunate when you've just had a big vet visit.
All three horses had their teeth done which was pretty dramaless apart from Tralee throwing his head as high as possible. Nell had her flu jabs - the only horse we bother vaccinating against it as Tralee has NEVER been flued and Rocky's was out of date by about three years so he has probably built up some immunities by now. The vet had his microchip scanner stolen so we couldn't check Nell for that but he had a good look at her leg and shoulder, finding nothing. She flexed through all the way and there was no abcess in the foot. He noted that she is short-stepping in front but I know that already and that is simply due to her upright shoulder. He also said she wasn't tracking up behind properly, which I also noticed when mum trotted her up. Sooo... It could be her back. We're going to try and get some money together and have the back specialist come out to sort them all. + there's a free massage for the horse owner after! Optional of course. Then a couple of days ago Nell's shoulder swelled up and became very liquidy. We rekoned a kick but yesterday I went to sort her and couldn't really see what was wrong. When Alex checked her she was surprised at how much it had gone down - it had apparently been very puffy - and it looked almost completely like the other side. So thankfully she doesn't need to go for X-rays. At least that's some good news. She is however on Bute for whatever is causing the pain in her leg and therefore riding her is out of the question for now. I'm also back at college on Wednesday which I am pleased about. I have the weekends to ride Tralee or Rocky until Nell is better, and three days a week of brain stimulating bliss.